Protesters gather at the Vaults Gallery during a rally that led to Exhibit B by South African artist Brett Bailey being cancelled. Photograph: Thabo Jaiyesimi/Demotix/Corbis

The Barbican has condemned protesters who forced the cancellation of an anti-slavery exhibition featuring black actors chained and in cages.

Voicing strong complaints about the implications for freedom of expression, officials from the renowned arts venue confirmed they would not push ahead with viewings of Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B. The installation should have started a five-day run on Tuesday but the opening night was scrapped after up to 200 protesters blockaded the entrance and the road leading to the Barbican in London.

The withdrawal was hailed as a victory by campaigners who claimed 20,000 signatures against what they condemned as “complicit racism”. But the Barbican rejected the accusation and raised concerns about encroachment on artistic freedom.

“It became impossible for us to continue with the show because of the extreme nature of the protest and the serious threat to the safety of performers, audiences and staff,” said a spokesperson.

“Given that protests are scheduled for future performances of Exhibit B we have had no choice but to cancel all performances of the piece. We find it profoundly troubling that such methods have been used to silence artists and performers and that audiences have been denied the opportunity to see this important work.

“Exhibit B raises, in a serious and responsible manner, issues about racism; it has previously been shown in 12 cities, involved 150 performers and been seen by around 25,000 people with the responses from participants, audiences and critics alike being overwhelmingly positive.”

The Barbican said strenuous efforts had been made to save the exhibition. “We respect people’s right to protest but are disappointed that this was not done in a peaceful way as had been previously promised by campaigners,” the spokesperson said. “We believe this piece should be shown in London and are disturbed at the potential implications this silencing of artists and performers has for freedom of expression.”

The campaign against the exhibition was led by Birmingham-based activist and journalist Sara Myers but drew support from around the country, including noted figures such as Lord Boateng, Britain’s first black cabinet minister.

Simon Woolley, coordinator of Operation Black Vote and a former Equalities and Human Rights Commissioner, said efforts were made to communicate to the Barbican the strength of feeling. “They underestimated it. They failed to see people’s anger at being exploited in this way,” he said. “This was a vanity project. Having people objectified in this humiliating way was always going to cause a fierce reaction. It is a shame that it reached this stage but the feeling was that no one was listening.”

Reacting to the Barbican’s claim that the protest was not peaceful, demonstrators pointed out that police at the scene left without making any arrests.

The installation arrived in the capital to artistic acclaim. Peter Brook described it as “an extraordinary achievement”. A review in the Guardian said the South African artist’s work was “unbearable and essential”.

The Barbican billed the work as a valuable contribution to debate. “Exhibit B critiques the ‘human zoos’ and ethnographic displays that showed Africans as objects of scientific curiosity through the 19th and early 20th centuries.”

The 12 tableaux, featured “motionless performers placed in settings drawn from real life”. Together, it said, the images “confront colonial atrocities committed in Africa, European notions of racial supremacy and the plight of immigrants today”.

But protesters, beating drums and carrying posters, said any good intentions were heavily outweighed by the scenes of degradation created by Bailey, including a female slave chained to a French officer’s bed.

Among the strongest supporters of the project were some of the actors involved. Prior to Tuesday’s protest, they met demonstrators but neither side was able to convince the other. In a statement seeking to calm the controversy, they said: “We find this piece to be a powerful tool in the fight against racism. Individually, we chose to do this piece because art impacts people on a deeper emotional level that can spark change.

“The exhibit does not allow for any member of the audience – white, black or otherwise – to disassociate themselves from a system that contains racism within it. We are proud to be black performers in this piece; to represent our history, our present and ourselves by playing the various characters taken from the record books.”

Director Brett Bailey, writing on the Guardian’s Comment Is Free site echoed the Barbican’s condemnation. “I stand against any action that calls for the censoring of creative work or the silencing of divergent views, except those where hatred is the intention. The intention of EXHIBIT B is never hatred, never fear, never prejudice,” he said. “It has not been my intention to alienate people with this work. To challenge perceptions and histories, yes. Explicitly to offend: no. Do any of us really want to live in a society in which expression is suppressed, banned, silenced, denied a platform? My work has been shut down today, whose will be closed down tomorrow?”

The row prompted an anguished statement from the group Index on Censorship. “The Barbican’s mishandling of this work, means that they have failed the artist and the audience,” said associate arts producer Julia Farrington. “The work is now not going to be shown, so their very vocal support for Exhibit B is totally compromised.

“And, by being taken by surprise at the hostile response to the work, they have acted defensively, instead of proactively opening up dialogue with black artists and audience at the earliest stage of considering putting on this work. They must now take this opportunity to engage with the 22,500 who signed the petition and lead on a debate, at the highest level, about institutional inequality in the arts in this country.”

Letters: While it is surely right to reaffirm notions of a shared black identity in order to reactivate the head-on struggle against racism, I hope that will be part of a much wider realignment of politics on the progressive left